Sept., 1924 FALL MIGRATION NOTES FROM ARIZONA 187 



bearing a fairly plentiful crop of berries, were seldom entered; in fact I did not see 

 a single Woodhouse Jay in certain sections where there were nearly pure stands of 

 jumper. 



Corvus corax sinuatus. Southern Raven. Beginning October 10 a few ravens 

 appeared, apparently migrating. At any rate, these scattered companies, containing 

 from three to ten individuals, were always drifting in a southerly direction. 



Nucifraga columbiana. Clark Nutcracker. A few seen at high altitudes, above 

 the yellow pine belt. 



Cyanocephalus cyanocephalus. Pinon Jay. Abundant and in flocks numbering 

 hundreds of individuals throughout the piiion-juniper region. Failure of the crop of 

 pinion nuts had left these jays without their usual food, and they were doing consider- 

 able damage to some ranch crops. Certain fields of corn and beans were raided con- 

 stantly. Curiously enough there were other fields, around which the jays were seen 

 daily, which they never touched. I was told that ordinarily, with a normal supply of 

 pinon nuts, the jays did not damage cultivated crops. There was no indication of an 

 exodus of the birds as a result of the absence of their usual food. 



Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus. Yellow-headed Blackbird. Occasional individ- 

 uals appeared in the corn fields or else about the Osborn ranch house. Seen from 

 September 16 to October 7. 



Agelaius phoeniceus fortis. Thick-billed Red-winged Blackbird. Migrating south- 

 ward in small numbers, never more than eight or ten in a fiock. First seen October 7, 

 and from then on until my departure. 



Sturnella magna hoopesi. Rio Grande Meadowlark. 



Sturnella neglecta. Western Meadowlark. Meadowlarks were present in the 

 region when we arrived, September 1, but whether or not both species breed there, 

 could not be ascertained. Eleven specimens of hoopesi and three of neglecta were 

 collected, but this is no indication of their relative abundance. A special effort was 

 made toward securing hoopesi, and the call-notes and songs of the two species are so 

 different that there seldom was any doubt as to which kind I was pursuing. Meadow- 

 larks were plainly migrating southward. They would be present in a field one day 

 and absent the next, and flocks were seen again and again that were rapidly drifting 

 in a southerly direction, walking and feeding on the ground and always flying in the 

 same general direction when disturbed. For hoopesi to be migrating southward 

 through this part of Arizona is an indication that the breeding range extends some 

 distance farther north, probably into southern Utah and perhaps into southwestern 

 Colorado. By the third week in October Meadowlarks had become very scarce, but 

 some were seen on October 31. 



Specimens of hoopesi collected September 9 and 11 were molting from juvenal 

 to first winter plumage. On October 9 several Meadowlarks were seen that were 

 molting, so as to be able to fly but with difficulty. Wing and tail feathers had appar- 

 ently been lost almost all at once, and were but partly replaced. 



It is of interest to compare the occurrence of these two species in this region 

 with Wetmore's reports of conditions in the vicinity of Bill Williams Mountain (Kansas 

 University Science Bulletin, iv, Sept., 1908, p. 381; Condor, xxiii, March, 1921, p. 62). 



Euphagus cyanocephalus. Brewer Blackbird. Seen during September and the 

 first half of October. Usually about barns and corrals. 



Carpodacus cassini. Cassin Purple Pinch. First seen October 17 at about 8000 

 feet altitude on San Francisco Mountain. After the heavy snow storm of October 

 28-30, Cassin Purple Finches appeared in numbers in the lowlands. Between Dead- 

 man Flat and Flagstaff flock after flock was seen feeding in weed patches alongside 

 the road. 



Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis. HousS Finch. First appeared September 19, 

 a single bird. A few others were seen, never more than three or four together, at 

 long intervals. 



Passer domesticus. English Sparrow. First seen at Deadman Flat on October 

 7. That morning I was standing in the yard of the Osborn ranch when, with a whirr 

 of wings, a flock of about twenty English Sparrows, all females, swooped from the 

 sky and settled down in the chicken yard. I shot three and the survivors, rising high 

 in the air, flew to the northward until out of sight. Later on, other flocks were seen, 

 both here and in the town of Flagstaff. 



